I am a physician, currently practicing as an Anesthesiologist. My other passions are finance and investments. As of 2013, I have passed all three levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exams, all in my first attempts. I received my Masters of Business Administration degree in 2008. I received my certification as a securities specialist from the Philippine Stock Exchange in 2009.

Category: Philippines

Globe Telecom, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Yondu, has formed a joint venture with Salud Interactiva to launch KonsultaMD – a 24/7 health hotline service manned by skilled and licensed Filipino doctors who provide medical assessment and advice, including basic healthcare and permissible medication over the phone. – from press release at Globe website here

There’s a new doctor in town! Konsulta MD logo. Image from konsulta.md

“KonsultaMD is our response to the pain points in Philippine healthcare. The growing population puts further pressure to an already-strained healthcare landscape which is suffering from lack of experienced healthcare professionals, under-resourced public hospitals, poor health infrastructure and limited accessibility” said Gil B. Genio, Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Operating Officer for Business and International Markets.

Though coming from good intentions, Konsulta MD seems to be a terribly bad idea. Here are the reasons why:

Senyora Santibanez @Senyora is the Philippines’ most popular twitter parody account, so much so that it is actually the 47th most popular among all twitter accounts in the country. It’s safe to say that she’s more famous and has more clout than most real celebrities in the Philippines.

In recent years, there has been a perception that Eat Bulaga, a Philippine noontime variety show, is for a more mature crowd. It’s the moms, dads, uncles, aunts and grandparents at home that still loyally watch them. Eat Bulaga’s rival, It’s Showtime, is reputed to more popular to the younger, more social media savvy crowd.

Fast Forward to 2015, Eat Bulaga connected big with the younger market through #AlDub. If there was a Philippine version of “breaking the internet”, the Aldub phenomenon did it on August 8.

In June 2015, Gold’s Gym Philippines surprised its Sheridan branch club members by kicking them out without considerable notice. The reason — the Sheridan Gold’s Gym branch had become Nike’s House of Rise.

I’m happy for Gold’s Gym Sheridan for getting this gig, but did the gym have to kick out its members? Unfortunately for the members, Gold’s Sheridan is still pocketing the member’s money while raking in the Nike millions. That’s stinkier than a used pair of gym shorts.

When some Multi-Level marketing (MLM) companies are accused of being illegal pyramid schemes, their first defense is to say that they have products to sell. They’ll even boast that these are high quality products that justify their often very high prices. But what if they are the same products sold by other currently operating and failed MLMs?

Who are the product suppliers for these MLM companies? Here’s one of them:

Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) is a legitimate business strategy. However, many scammers have been disguising their pyramid scams as MLM companies . How can a potential investor distinguish between a legitimate networking company and an illegal Ponzi scheme?

Gotcha! If the word “investment” is used by the company, and you are called an “investor”, those are initial clues that it might be a Ponzi scheme. What are the other things you need to watch out for?

The Direct Selling Association of the Philippines (go see their website here) has come up with an eight-point test in distinguishing between a legitimate MLM company and an illegal pyramid scheme (most likely disguised as an MLM). ALL eight questions must have “YES” answers for a company to be evaluated as legitimate.